Schools Deficit: $380 Million

CENTRAL FLORIDA - The Area - In Brief

June 19, 2004

KISSIMMEE After months of haggling over numbers, school district officials released a revised projection this week that showed a 10-year deficit of more than $380 million to keep up with Osceola's rampant growth.

That cost comes even though the county has the highest impact fees in the state.

"The process is essentially the same as in the past," said Rick Collins, superintendent for finance at the district. "The only big difference was the impact-fee calculation."

Collins will present an in-depth explanation of the shortfall and his calculation methods during a workshop at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The district has long known it has a shortfall, but the issue came to a head in April when it was discovered that officials hadn't updated projected facilities needs before a sales-tax referendum in March to reflect significantly higher school-impact fees that were going to take effect May 1. Voters rejected the proposed half-cent sales tax for education.

The earlier projected deficit, $459 million, didn't take into account the new $9,708 impact fee.

District officials originally said the $9,708 impact fee would generate $522 million for the district during a decade, but after meeting with city and county officials, Collins used a different growth forecast that reduced the projection to $329 million.